Musings from a developer of different kinds of formats. Note - this blog is many a time a kind of notebook for me to remember things I've come into touch with or reflections and ideas that I've had during development projects. If you can find use for the writings here, I'm well happy. By Simon Staffans.

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Pixel Lab 2012 half-time report

I’m currently attending the 2012 edition of the
Pixel Lab, one of the foremost professional workshops / seminars in the
field of multiplatform / transmedia in the world, IMO. 36 producers are
attending from all over Europe (and some from even further away), backed up by
a host of tutors, experts and Power to the Pixel people.

The days are long and totally jam-packed with
information, inspiration and great discussions. As I reflected over breakfast
just now; it’s very rare and extremely nice to be able to sit down with anyone
in attendance and NOT have to go through the initial 10-15 minutes of trying to
explain exactly what it is you do. These are all professionals, and whereas
some might come from the ad sector, some from film, some from gaming and some
from distribution or television, the mere fact that they have applied for the
Pixel Lab means that they have an urge to explore the future of multiplatform
and transmedia to a greater degree. This in itself makes for good connections,
no matter whom you talk to.

Quite a nice venue, Resort Schwielowsee

Now, there are things I can’t write about, as
we’re working on actual projects as well in out group work (must add that Sean Coleman is a very good mentor
for hte group. Also slightly addicted to post-it notes) and I am under
obligation not to share the details of these. But many things can be written
about, such as the presentations of experts and tutors. I’m slightly pressed
for time right now, so will just briefly mention the people we’ve had the
pleasure of learning from up until now. A more in-depth studie will be
available later in the week.

If you’re so inclined, I’m Storyfying each day
of the Lab – here’s Day One
and Day
Two – with tweets, links, quotes etc.

Lance
Weiler, enigmatic as ever, kicked things off on Monday with a great
introduction to what the week basically will be about. In the talk – Igniting
the Imagination of many – he pointed out the theory of information foraging as
something for producers and storyteller to study, something I completely agree
with. Another key point was the need to prototype a lot of stuff fairly
quickly, fail fast and learn fast and not be afraid to try things out. I can
relate – coming from a television background I feel my projects often swell out
into too large things that are unnecessary cumbersome to produce and get
financed.

Adam
Sigel on the other hand talked about strategy development, again something
that makes perfect sense – designing a plan of action, in order to achieve a
particular goal. He touched on many other good points – the need to develop
user personas in order to understand them better, the need to explore the
themes of your story as they are the ones that will carry over to different
platforms, rather than your characters, and so on. A lot of good stuff.

Stephen
Stokes from Manning Gottlieb OMD spoke about the changing brand landscape,
where brands increasingly are re-appraising values, becoming more authentic and
generous, recognising the need to earn attention; they essentially need to DO
more and adopt modern storytelling techniques. Key is also to focus on actually
understanding the audience; for instance, ”always leaving them wanting more”
just doesn’t cut it anymore. This was the first time I’d heard Stephen, and I’d
say that he gave a very good impression, talking about a facet of the
development processes and the industry that other speakers merely touched on.

On Tuesday morning Nuno Bernardo took to the stage
to talk about business models for transmedia and/or multiplatform. Nuno is a
great example to follow when it comes to simply getting your content out there,
building an audience and getting things commissioned and financed. One way that
seems to work pretty nicely is getting R&D funding in to do, not a story
world, but Specs. To produce, not a pilot but a Prototype. To do, not
distribution but Dissemination, and so on. The major bonus is that you will
have an IP of sorts at the end of the process, and probably an audience and a
community to use as leverage in negotiations with broadcasters.

Paul
Tyler, another new acquaintance for me and a good presenter to boot, came
in from Handling Ideas in Denmark to talk about gaining insights about the
audience, starting off with the very true assertion that content developers are
more focused on delivering content to platforms rather than users. He also
pointed out that the most important action a content creator can take is to ask
the right questions. This in order to understand existing needs and provide a
solution. His take on brainstorming was also quite neat, called Reversed
brainstorming; think evil, how can you make the experience worse. Then take the
suggestions and turn the around.

Tom
Putzki started Wednesday off with a sessions on the games industry. It’s a
pretty big one for sure, worth billions and billions… 40 billion € worldwide to
be more precise (which I was under the impression was a bit more, but perhaps
not).

Martin
Ericsson from Bardo talked about gaming from another angle, that of a Live
Action Roleplayer. ”Games are not fun because they are games, they are fun
because they are well designed”. He also pointed out that we can look at a lot
of different sources to find inspiration regarding transmedia projects we
develop; if you want to learn about sharing and social networks, look at for
instance Dragon Age II on FB. If you want to learn about the process of
leveling up, look at computer-based roleplaying games, and so on. Interesting
talk!

Finally I'd just like to say that even though I'm attending without a project of my own, it's immensely interesting to listen to experts like Inga von Staden, Lance Weiler and others evaluate the projects on the table. Very interesting stuff. I’ll update with a more thorough write-up as
soon as I get the chance. Until then.

About Me

I work mainly as a designer of cross and transmedia formats. I also do research into the stuff we develop, get published, do talks etc. Interested in social media as well, and especially the connections between all this stuff and the storytelling possibilities opening up. This is all quite interesting, entertaining and actually even fulfilling. Also, it helps pay the mortgage. Happily married, three great kids.